159 The Foundations of Iron

"It is always a pleasure to deal with a civilized race that knows how to properly behave. You can tell your king that it would be in the interest of his people to act as nothing happened. We wouldn't want that he manages to escape, right?" Starring at the very pale dwarf that was still having a hard time figuring out how lucky they were, she could see him weakly nodding his head, before his entire body that was leaning on the wall slowly fell to the ground.

"Glini, let's go to the Foundations of Iron." "Yes-ye ... WHAT? But wh..." The cowardly ranger did not realize where they headed before thinking for a few seconds. However, seeing the dark specter looking at him, he reluctantly swallowed all the questions he had and just resumed his position as a mere guide. Moving his legs, he was a bit stiffened after waiting for so long outside the secret library.

As for the only remaining dwarf in the room, his extinguished eyes began to look at all the properly organized books and scrolls around him. Even after she had read everything on them, she did not destroy them but instead, handled with great care the fragile grimoires. The nearly entire history of the Iron Dwarves, since they first came to conserve the past. And all she had to say about it was resumed in one word. "Disappointed."

Murmuring this, he felt angered to be underestimated like that. However, even the newest inventions that he took pride in researching with his peers were mere toys for Leilade.And when he questioned her about that, trying to trap her into tricky technical questions, she was capable of outwitting him without even thinking. In fact, if Master Agnil would have been present, not only the engineer would have been ashamed of being called like that, but he would have seen the questions that plagued his brain for many years resolved in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately,the moving soul only had the memories of 8 centuries in the Demonic Empire, where she often stumbled upon many designs. And at the point where she stood, when magic and technology was commonly used, she had, of course, learned enough to at least understand the obscure ways of the crazy inventors. That simple understanding was still enough to label her as a genius in such an archaic world.

Besides the technological progress of all the races that were compiled in those books, she was also interested in the aftermath of the Age of Darkness. Mainly where, when and how each Dark God died. However, because they were located in far in the West, they had only received second-hand information, besides the even that cursed the Kingdom of Pankow. Even now, if they could say there were seven of those monsters originally, they could only report the whereabouts of five of them.

The one that was called Akama died more or less at the same time as a red demon in the Wild Mountains. If the former took an entire kingdom with him, the other claimed the lives of many knights of Kirov, alongside the troll Hero. Following this, a wolf in a human shape but with two times its size succumbed near a vast lake. Another red giant disappeared in the Synnada Empire, his fate unknown. As for the most dangerous of all, the last time he was seen was in the Forbidden Mountain, and his disappearance marked the end of the Age of Darkness.

With that, Leilade could already understand a bit more about how things turned so bad for those surviving members of the Demonic Army. Because Candaith and Akama had two Orbs of the Ancient, Candaith probably managed to pacify the rest, saying that he would take them all home quickly. However, when they all heard the Saksa, they probably ran away in fear.

The rest was just guessing, but it couldn't be entirely wrong. Even with the servant of the Ancients present, spatial magic was not the most obvious magic to notice. After that, that space bunny probably tried to create a portal, but it failed to reach its destination. With the Orbs probably depleted, they had to resort finding new ways to gather mana. By killing the locals. Then, with the gods deciding to not let their own meals getting stolen by others, the success rate of opening a portal would drastically be lowered.

Normally, when a portal is no longer fueled with mana, he would automatically collapse on itself, sometimes destroying the reality around it sometimes not. However, funny things that even Candaith probably didn't expect, at least three portals managed to outlive him. The Lake, the Forbidden Mountain and in another place far in the North, out the utmost limit of the Synnada Empire. For some reasons, they were still active.

Even then, she was certain none of them was the first try of Candaith on this planet. The two missing survivors probably were fooled into believing the spatial mage, only to be sent somewhere in the vast immensity of the Universe. And with Candaith failing more and more, getting extremely weak, the only one that probably stood with him until the end would be Akama. The two Akûl and the werewolf, thinking they were strong enough to survive on their own, got picked off one by one. But even then, many Heroes died because if those three felt their death was assured, they would not go down without bringing everyone else into an eternal sleep.

Exiting the palace, none of the Iron Beards dared to stop the two when they took the elevator. Since she felt generous and had time to waste, she was willing to deal with an infestation for free. Looking at her guide, she also learned why someone so fearful could belong to the rangers, the supposedly best marksmen amongst the dwarves. The ones that were sent to hunt drakes and other terrifying monsters.

In fact, it was related to the request, or some would call order, she gave to that scholarly dwarf. The artifact of Sharpeye, the one that was used to harm her before the Archmage showed up. The reason why it belonged to that outlaw dwarf was because of the traditions that were born after the Age of Darkness. That the best ranger, the best shooter of all of those experts would be the one to wield it. If centuries passed without any issue, it had already been forty years since that criminal managed to secure it, decades after decade.

The tourney that was used to determine who was worthy of this powerful weapon happened to be in ten days. And if the previous one had once more seen the murdering dwarf claim the prize, this time, many felt that Glini had a chance. However, the more she looked at the easily scared ranger, the more she felt baffled by what they were thinking. Even if this mouse in dwarf skin was good at shooting, he would immediately shiver in the presence of his opponent. Not like she cared about who will win since she knew who will definitely not be able to participate.

Arriving at their destination, they saw many dwarves getting stunned by her sudden appearance. The fact that she came by the emergency entrance too was shocking them, but they did not even make a single gesture while Glini was reading the signs to figure out which wagon to take. "Fo-Found it." Even now, he was still stuttering when his eyes met her's.

Climbing on it, he strangely found a few leather strangles on the bottom of it. Wondering about why they were present, he still attached himself, just in case. Turning around, he still had an interrogative face, as he only noticed now that he was still in the dark about their last travel.

"Wh-What happened last time? I remember screaming and then my vision went bla ..."

THUD

His unconscious body fell once more inside the metal trolley, as she did not even care about the reactions of the bystanders. She had already experienced how acute the scream of that ranger could be, she did not want to suffer again. Activating the lever near it, the soft slope turned quickly into a vertiginous descent.

Fortunately, he was firmly held by the leather strangles, otherwise, the dwarf would have truly flown out of the wagon. It was continuous fall at an angle near 60°, as they began to gain too much speed. If she didn't felt the pressure of the air, she was certain that it was quick enough to make most weaklings pass out. Conveniently, it was also an extremely quick way of moving, as they arrived at their destination mere minutes after getting inside the metallic cart.

Awakening her guide, she could see saliva all over his beard. Even if was not in danger of flying away, the travel still shook him a lot. But in his muddled state, he did not care at all about that, as he was too busy trying to not throw up. Not managing to do that, she only glanced at the ten or so rifles that were pointed her. Funny that he was so busy throwing up that he did not even notice that.

"Take this." A tentacle began to leave her body, carrying a letter on it. Of course, she did not expect the dwarves here to believe her when she would say that she was here to help them. No one would believe her, except a few morons. So, with the help of the Royal Engineer, she got that letter, with the seal of the king on it. But instead of picking it up, the dwarves only took a few steps back, still aiming at her.

"Frightened by this? Really?" Moving her tentacle left and right, she suppressed the small annoyance that was beginning to appear. Fortunately, one warrior either braver or dumber than the rest approached slowly, still in guard. Snatching the letter at the speed of the light, he noticed the easily recognizable seal on it. Stunned by that, his eyes looked at the letter, then at Leilade, then at the letter again.

"Give me that!" Grabbing it from the hand of the baffled rifleman, a dwarf with a heavier armor began to read it. Since she had already seen this outfit when she spoke to the uncle of Glini, she knew what it meant. Soon enough, the one in charge of that place glanced at her with dubious eyes, not really convinced. But if what was written in this letter true, that would mean the entire kingdom will rejoice.

"So, you claim you can exterminate a threat that plagued our people for thousands of years? Just like that? And why should we believe ..." Seeing her raise her hand, he stopped, only to realize that he had followed her orders. Angered by that, he was beginning to shout when he saw the very pale ranger with his dirty beard speaking.

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"Sh-she had killed a wy-wyvern." "DON'T YOU DA... A WYVERN?" With the letter in his hand and a ranger vouching for her, he felt that his view of the world was changing. Since when they were working with the undead? He knew that where he currently was oftenly received the news too late, but that was still something that he should now. So why he didn't know it?

"Fine. Follow me." With that, those that pointed their rifles on her began to lower their weapons, while scratching their heads. They were surprised too, and a few were even smiling as it could be the end of them being here. Clearly, the fact that no undead had ever attacked the dwarves made them far more agreeable to the idea of Leilade helping them. And to surprise her a bit, she noticed that the dwarves were not alone this time.

"Nyeh, Nyah, Nyeh, Nyah." Large ratmen in armors were training nearby, attacking in perfect order. Compared to the dwarves and their own kin, those monsters were even taller than humans. Seeing the soul starring at them, the commandant felt that he had to inform her of everything since she could be her best shot at finally ending this war.

"Those bad-looking fellows. I guess the dwarves of that time would have been baffled to see us fighting side by side for survival. The truth is, both them and the spiders came from the West, beyond the vast plains of the orcs. Fleeing that continent still in war after being defeated, they didn't expect their old enemies to follow them even there."

Pushing the door to his room, he did not stop speaking. "Truthfully, our ancestors were extremely weird to shelter those ratmen. I mean, look at their faces, there is nothing good on it. And they also brought upon us those spiders, the one that lives inside the Foundations of Iron. But in reality, if they hadn't warned us about that threat, we would have probably been overrun by those eight-legged monsters. After all, what can a spider do? More than they expected."